Festus bestest screener-outer?

Tom Lasorda once told me, “What you know about baseball could fit in a gnat’s ass,” and it’s the same with basketball, although it would be, I hope, a large gnat.

So I’m not bragging when I tell you what I noticed when I went to YouTube to re-watch Harrison Barnes’ behind-the-head dunk on Denver’s Anthony Randolph Tuesday night, a dramatic and crucial play.

What I noticed is that once Barnes blew by Randolph way out on the right wing, no Denver player from the weak side came over to challenge Barnes. Why not? Denver forward Kenneth Faried was ready and willing to supply that weak-side help, but he was blocked from the action by Warriors’ rookie Festus Ezeli who supplied a textbook box-out. Ezeli rose to the occasion by not allowing Faried to rise to the occasion.

That’s the stuff that wins games, and the Warriors won a huge one Tuesday, and you can read about Ezeli, and other random observations on what is suddenly a red-hot series, in my Thursday column in the Chronicle.

Ezeli, by the way, has been the object of a ton of rookie hazing from his teammates. One day they took the tires off his car and hid ’em. But after that play Tuesday, after Ezeli also contributed to the offense with 3-for-3 shooting in 16 minutes, his teammates should fetch his pipe and slippers. And his tires.